U.S. Economy

(CN) – Job growth was strong over the last 25 years, meanwhile private nonfarm business sector productivity is up, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Thursday.

Employment rose for all large metros over the last 25 years Over the last 25 years, Austin-Round Rock, Texas, and Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada, had the largest percentage increase in employment (144 percent) among metropolitan areas with a Census 2010 population of 1 million or more, the agency said. Other areas where employment more than doubled from March 1991 to March 2016 were Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, and Raleigh, North Carolina. There were no large areas with a decrease in employment over that period.

Private nonfarm business sector productivity In other news, the agency reported Thursday that private nonfarm business sector multifactor productivity increased at a 0.2-percent annual rate in 2015. This 2015 gain reflected a 2.8-percent increase in output and a 2.6-percent increase in the combined inputs of capital and labor. Capital services grew by 2.6 percent and labor input—which is the combined effect of hours worked and labor composition—also grew by 2.6 percent. Capital intensity, defined as capital services per hour, increased at a 0.4-percent annual rate in 2015, which is the first increase in this measure since 2010. Multifactor productivity is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of combined units of labor input and capital services. It is designed to measure the joint influences of technological change, efficiency improvements, returns to scale, reallocation of resources, and other factors of economic growth, accounting for the effects of capital and labor.